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Nonfiction Book Group with Geo

Live via Zoom:
Wednesday, May 20, 6:00 PM
Nonfiction Book Group discusses Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain

Led (virtually!) by Greenlight bookseller Geo, our nonfiction book group reads and discusses the most fascinating topics in nonfiction, both classic and contemporary, with seasonal themes covering a variety of genres. For May, the group discusses Musicophilia, by “poet laureate of medicine” (The New York Times) Oliver Sacks. With the same trademark compassion and erudition he brought to The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Oliver Sacks explores the place music occupies in the brain and how it affects the human condition. In Musicophilia, he shows us a variety of what he calls “musical misalignments.” Among them: a man struck by lightning who suddenly desires to become a pianist at the age of forty-two; an entire group of children with Williams syndrome, who are hypermusical from birth; people with “amusia,” to whom a symphony sounds like the clattering of pots and pans; and a man whose memory spans only seven seconds – for everything but music. Illuminating, inspiring, and utterly unforgettable, Musicophilia is Oliver Sacks' latest masterpiece.